FAQ

Q: Are you looking for investors?A: Yes. Please email Investor.Relations@ThaiCannabisCorporation.com.

Q: Are you looking for one big investor, or many smaller investors?A: We must maintain our focus on bringing great products to market, while strengthening every link in the industry’s supply chain here in Thailand. We would welcome the opportunity to chat with any investors that can help us do that, be they one or many. Please use our Contact Us form to get our attention. Also, ArcView has a great platform for attracting and aggregating smaller investments. You should check it out.

Q: Did you attend ArcView’s Cannabis Investor Summit in Vancouver, BC, Canada, in early May?A: Yes. It was a pleasure and honor to meet so many experienced cannabis investors. Many expressed serious interest in our offering. We are following up with them now. Nonetheless, the window to invest is still open to others, so please do not hesitate to use our Contact Us form to let us know if you are interested.

Q: Is cannabis legal in Thailand?A: The short answer is “No.” The longer answer is “Yes, if (a) it is grown in a joint venture with a branch of Thailand’s government; (b) it contains less than 1% THC (the stuff that ‘gets you high’); (c) it is grown in an approved province, and (d) it is one of Thailand’s native strains, or recently back-crossed with one or more of Thailand’s native strains, or otherwise approved by Thailand’s government.” There’s more to it than that, but that’s the gist of it.

Q: You said that your cannabis will contain THC<1%. Doesn’t US law restrict cannabis to having THC<0.3%?A: Yes. Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE) is great at extracting THC from cannabis oil. We can adjust the THC content downwards to meet the requirements of any jurisdiction. We expect to supply the extracted THC to medical research here in Thailand. (If you need to conduct clinical trials, it is much less expensive to do them in Thailand.)

Q: What’s this about Thailand’s legalization being part of a ‘scientific experiment’?”A: Yes. The Project’s fundamental scientific research question is: “Can Thailand create a export-focused cannabis industry that, within ten years, will add at least 1% to Thailand’s US$400 billion-dollar GDP?” We believe that this research question falls within the UN’s guidelines, as discussed in the paper Reconciling Canada’s Legalization of Non-Medical Cannabis with the UN Drug Control Treaties, which concludes that “the scientific purposes exemption provides the strongest grounds for Canada to legalize non-medical cannabis without having to withdraw from the UN drug control conventions.” Currently, Thailand’s laws restrict cannabis to having minimal THC, so our products will fall under the UN’s “medical” exemption. However, we want to be prepared, should Thailand later choose to legalize cannabis that contains more THC.

Q: Will other firms be approved to operate under that law?A: That is up to Thailand’s government. However, Thailand isn’t California. There’s no “green rush” here. We would be very surprised to see more than a handful of firms approved this year (2018). Thailand is more likely to have a few big, reliably-regulated firms, than a zillion tiny semi-regulated ones, as in the US states. Of course, that’s just our understanding. Time will tell.

Q: I saw online that someone else tried to start a cannabis farm in Thailand, and the Government wouldn’t allow it. Will that happen to you?A: No. Thailand’s government stated, regarding that case, that cannabis farming needed “more study” before such a huge farm could be licensed. TCC is the “more study.” That’s why our plan starts small, with just 20 hectares, in partnership with a respected agricultural research university that is, itself, a branch of Thailand’s government (the Ministry of Education) and then expands rapidly — but in a controlled manner — thereafter. We’ve been working on this for nine years, during which time every relevant Ministry of Thailand’s government has, in effect, vetted our plan.

Q: I read that the Thai Tobacco Monopoly (TTM) was growing hemp, too.A: Correct, but read carefully: TTM planted, and expects to plant, seeds. It can only get one crop per year that way, and it won’t be sensimilla. We, on the other hand, are growing for cannabinoid-laden buds, from clones, vegged in greenhouses. We can produce mature bud continuously, outdoors, year-round, all sensimilla, at a very competitive price. In our opinion, TTM is more likely to become our customer than our competitor.

Q: How can you expand so rapidly?A: By partnering with the Royal Project Foundation. The Foundation works with more than 30,000 farming households across Thailand. For over a decade, the Foundation explored the development of a hemp fiber industry; however, there’s no profitable market for the resulting fiber. These farmers already understand the cannabis plant. We will learn as much from them as they learn from us. We’ll supply greenhouse-vegged clones, help the farmers plant them outdoors (or in greenhouses, for the medical market) under Thailand’s tropical sun, help them maintain the plants for maximum quality, and then buy the raw flowers back a few weeks later, year-round. We’ll have big “demonstration” farms, too, but most of our product will come from smallholder farmers. We’re buying their bud, not buying or renting their land. That allows us to expand our production in a very rapid manner, with a high return on assets.

Q: So…you’re growing all of your cannabis outdoors?A: No. We expect to grow most of it outdoors (for use in healthy & beauty products, packaged food & beverages, alternative medicines, and “hemp tobacco”) and some of it in greenhouses (for pharmaceuticals), but either way, here in the tropics we get sunlight for 12 hours and darkness for 12 hours, year-around, which is perfect for flowering. Remember, it’s a research project, and part of that is “market research.” If the market demands more greenhouses, then we’ll build more greenhouses.

Q: You’re only growing Thailand’s native strains (“landraces”)?A: Yes…and no. It is our understanding of Thai law that it is only legal to grow, in Thailand, (a) Thailand’s native strains, and/or (b) non-native strains that have been recently back-crossed with one or more of Thailand’s native strains. Our access to Thailand’s native strains — and Thailand’s extensive collection of other cannabis seeds — gives us a distinct competitive advantage in the breeding of new, patent-able strains. Most of the world’s current medical and/or adult-use commercial strains (a) contain Thai landrace genes, and (b) are overly-hybridized (ask any cannabis geneticist). We can back-cross these modern hybrids with their ancestral Thai forebears, to bring out the best qualities of both.

Q: Are Thailand’s native strains any good?A: Yes. They are, in fact, legendary. Some of Thailand’s native strains are very high in THC; some are very high in CBD; most have a balance of both. Our early research will be to identify which are the most productive, and to make crosses of native and non-native strains that are even more productive…and then to ramp up production.

Q: Do you have all of your permits and licenses?A: Not yet, but this isn’t California. There aren’t thousands of applicants. We are, to the best of our knowledge, the first company approved to begin the permitting process under last year’s new law. We have had significant input into the permitting and licensing process through which we are now moving. Thailand’s government wouldn’t have allowed us to proceed to this point, unless every relevant Ministry had pre-vetted our application. That why we’re the first. We expect the process to be detailed, proper, and legal, with many i’s to be dotted and t’s to cross, but smooth and timely.

Q: You are aware of the USA’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act?A: Yes. Thailand’s current Administration has treated us with scrupulous honesty and integrity, as we have treated this Administration. We will continue to interact with Thailand’s government, and with the governments of other nations, in a manner that is Above Reproach™. (That is our motto, after all.)

Q: In what jurisdiction is your company registered?A: The Thai Cannabis Corporation is a Thai company, registered in The Kingdom of Thailand.

Q: If it’s a Thai company, why are most of its leaders and Independent Directors Westerners?A: Because our company is export-focused, so we are modelling our customers. Please do note that our VP/HR and CFO are Thai nationals. We expect to hire a lot of Thais soon.

Q: How will Thailand’s production affect North America’s cannabis industry?A: We are helping members of the global cannabis industry — including North America’s —improve their efficiency, by making it easy for them to shift the least-profitable links in their global supply chains to Thailand. Here, they can enjoy the benefits of a tropical climate, a stable economy, cannabis legalization (currently only for THC<1%), a lower cost base, access to a broad range of native strains, qualified technologists and researchers, and a manufacturing base that already exports health & beauty products, packaged food & beverages, alternative & traditional medicines, and pharmaceuticals throughout the world.

Q: Why are you starting with CBD oils, extracts, and isolates, rather than higher-THC products?A: Because CBD oil is legal, demand for it is exploding, and — together with Thai farmers — we can make very good profits from it, while preparing for eventual legalization of higher-THC products, here in Thailand and abroad.

Q: Are you selling? I want to place a recurring order for 1 kilogram of 99.9% pure CBD isolate, 100 liters of CBD oil (with THC<0.5%), and a couple of metric tons of certified pesticide-free whole-plant cannabis oil (with THC<0.3%).A: No, we’re not taking orders, yet, sorry. However, we’d love to hear your detailed specifications, especially if you’re having trouble finding a reliable supplier of ingredients that meet your own products’ needs.

Q: Are you buying?A: Yes. If you make greenhouses that are optimized for tropical conditions, or any other equipment used in the large-scale production of cannabis (outdoors or in greenhouses), please contact us. We’re particularly interested in helping you explore the opportunity to shift some or all of your manufacturing to Thailand, which could make your products more internationally competitive. We’re going to be buying a lot of equipment over the next few years, and we will naturally tend to favor those companies who can best serve us here, locally, in Thailand.

Q: Are you hiring?A: Yes. If you have extensive experience with organic chemistry’s chemical engineering, or if you are a Thai citizen who has experience working in the cannabis industry (anywhere), then please, contact us at HR@ThaiCannabisCorporation.com.